Louisiana wrestles with fishing-access issues

Texas boating anglers are allowed to fish in water covering private property flooded by, and accessed via, a public waterway. That is not the case in Louisiana, where large chunks of waters, including parts of open-water bays, are being claimed as private property and public access prohibited.

Texas boating anglers are allowed to fish in water covering private property flooded by, and accessed via, a public waterway. That is not the case in Louisiana, where large chunks of waters, including parts of

Texas boating anglers are allowed to fish in water covering private property flooded by, and accessed via, a public waterway. That is not the case in Louisiana, where large chunks of waters, including parts of open-water bays, are being claimed as private property and public access prohibited.

Texas boating anglers are allowed to fish in water covering private property flooded by, and accessed via, a public waterway. That is not the case in Louisiana, where large chunks of waters, including parts of

Signs — large, shiny-white rectangles with red lettering that left little doubt as to their message — stood staked in shallow water every 100 yards or so just off both sides of Island Road, the long, narrow, precarious thread of a roadway standing just inches above an expanse of open bay leading to the isolated village of Isle De Jean Charles in the delta country of southeast Louisiana.

“Private property. No fishing. No trespassing. Violators will be prosecuted.”

It had to be some kind of joke, or maybe I was missing something. The signs, which also carried the name of a large corporation, clearly implied that the miles of open coastal bay behind them were off limits to boaters and anglers.

Tidal waters — the interconnected matrix of coastal bays and the bayous and backwater lakes — are public waters, my Texas mind reasoned. No one “owns” such water; the state holds it and most of the land beneath it in public trust. It belongs to no one and everyone. Same with the fish and crabs and other aquatic life in it. We all have access to it.

When I later mentioned the signs to the folks at Isle De Jean Charles Marina, they slowly shook their heads and looked at the floor. It was true, they said. That water — part of a near seamless reach of open water covering tens of thousands of acres — was, by Louisiana law, considered private property.

It once had been solid ground. But like hundreds of thousands of acres of coastal Louisiana, it had been rent by man-made canals cut to allow access for oil and gas extraction. Saltwater intrusion and the resulting erosion and subsidence, coupled with a lack of recharging sediment because of man-made changes in hydrology, had transformed it into a growing expanse of open water.

Louisiana’s laws said still it belonged to the landowners and could be treated like any other private property. But, the folks at the marina added, there was a lot more coastal and even inland waters — bays and bayous, lakes and sloughs, saltwater and brackish and freshwater — that always had been there and traditionally considered public water but now were being placed off-limits to public boating and fishing.

At least the corporation that owned the water off Island Road posted its property. Recent changes in Louisiana law removed a requirement that boundaries of waters claimed as private property had to be posted as such. Now, they said, a person boating or fishing much of Louisiana’s coastal waters had no idea whether they were on public water or private property. Many of them found out when they were cited for trespassing, often on waters their families had fished for generations.

That exchange, in 2010 while covering the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, was my introduction to what was then becoming a widespread issue in our neighboring state.

In the eight years since, the issue has festered with the controversy lapping over the Sabine River and into Texas.

Last August, B.A.S.S, the world’s largest fishing organization and operator of the nation’s largest and most prestigious professional bass-fishing tournament circuit, announced that anglers competing in the 2018 Bassmaster Elite tournament held in Orange, and focusing on the lower Sabine River and adjacent waters would not be permitted to fish in Louisiana waters.

“In two previous Elite Series tournaments, and one Bassmaster Open out of Orange, Louisiana’s unusual laws governing access to navigable waters have created conflict and confusion among anglers,” the organization’s announcement said.

“Due to the gray areas in the Louisiana Delta/Tidal waters that could create an uneven playing field, the 2018 Elite event in Orange will be restricted to Texas waters only,” Trip Weldon, B.A.S.S tournament director, said in announcing the move. The organization also said it would not schedule any tournaments in Louisiana’s bass-rich coastal delta and Atchafalaya Basin, areas of the state where issues of privatization of navigable waters create problems for anglers.

The situation in Louisiana is the result of a convoluted cascade of legislative actions, the state’s uniquely byzantine Napoleonic legal system and, at its heart, a map drawn more than 200 years ago.

That map, drawn in 1812 and used when Louisiana was admitted as a state, designates only parts of the state’s 3.5 million acres of coastal wetlands and waterways as “navigable” waters. The rest were — and remain — considered otherwise and subject to private ownership and control.

Over the last decade, landowners have used court decisions and legislative action to increasingly restrict access to Louisiana waters that in all other states are considered navigable waters and subject to public use. These are not isolated waters surrounded by private property; they are bays and bayous, canals and lakes connected to large systems.

The result has been increasing confrontation and frustration for Louisiana anglers. It is the responsibility of anglers to know and abide by the unmarked boundaries between public waters and private water.

The situation facing Louisiana boaters/anglers has been particularly nettlesome for some of the Louisiana fishing guides who operate in those areas and businesses such as marinas that cater to anglers. They worry that the problem of knowing public water from private is keeping anglers away. It certainly has cost Louisiana a chance of attracting the economic boost an area sees when it hosts a B.A.S.S. fishing tournament.

The state’s private anglers are increasingly frustrated and vocal about the situation, but that concern may be turning the tide.

In early March, a Louisiana state representative introduced a bill into the Louisiana Legislature that would address the issue of navigable waters being closed to anglers by the owners of the land beneath it. The legislation would restrict the ability of private landowners to prohibit public access to navigable waters flowing over or through their land.

B.A.S.S, as well as the Louisiana Sportsmen’s Coalition, have voiced support for the bill.

The prohibition on fishing Louisiana waters during the Bassmaster Elite tournament on the border-straddling Sabine River system significantly reduced options for the 100 or so professional anglers expected to compete. Some of the best bass habitat in the area is found in the marshes, bayous and sloughs on the Louisiana side of the system.

Legislation pending in Louisiana’s Legislature gives those professional anglers and all anglers affected by the singular weirdness of Louisiana’s current situation some hope.

The Bassmaster Elite Series tournament on the Sabine system had been scheduled for April 6-9, but flooding along the Sabine triggered by last week’s rains and concerns about potential hazardous boating conditions caused B.A.S.S. to announce late Friday that the tournament was postponed.

The tournament, officials said, will be rescheduled for later this year before the season’s September close.

That could be enough time for the Louisiana Legislature to act. It obviously needs to.